Frank commentary from an unretired call girl

That Was the Week That Was (#445)

What is wrong with a contract to sell sexual services between consenting adults who enter voluntarily into the transaction, neither of whom is harmed by the exchange?…nothing at all. No harm is done here, so why should this be regarded as a crime? – Charles Hill

A British financier has been arrested on suspicion of murder after two [sex workers] were found dead inside the bloodied walls of his luxury apartment in Hong Kong…The body of one was heavily decomposed, stuffed inside a large suitcase left on the balcony…She was nearly decapitated and her hands and legs were bound with ropes…The other…was found with her throat cut, lying naked in the living room. She had been stabbed multiple times…

Except neither Wired writers (nor those at Time or The Guardian) nor politicians nor rich people get to decide what any given individual thinks is worth risking his life for; the only person who gets to decide that is the individual himself. And it doesn’t matter how stupid or pointless anyone else thinks it is, because his life is not theirs to manage.

…an Egyptian court convicted eight men for…their appearance in a video…depicting…the country’s first same-sex wedding party…Egypt…has no laws against homosexuality…the law that was used to prosecute the men is one…meant to rid the newly independent Egypt of the licensed brothels that had existed under British rule…it banned prostitution of all forms…and…also prohibited what it called “debauchery”—without actually defining [it]…

…human trafficking is a parasite of legal prohibitionism…It is time for students of trafficking to call out states for creating the conditions that enable this crime…legislative and police efforts to suppress the sex trade are counterproductive. They drive sex-for-money…further underground…You would think that Americans would know better. Their first experiment in prohibition…should have brought home the message that prohibitionism cannot kill…commerce. It only cordons it off inside a zone of non-regulated trade…The link between prohibitionism and trafficking has been most clearly documented in America’s war on undocumented immigration…

Neofeminists claim that false rape accusations are too rare to even consider, and that we live in a “rape culture” where rapists get away with it:

…Latiqwa Mayes was walking down [a Baltimore] street…when she saw…Donald Robinson…[who] had reportedly once assaulted her friend…Mayes was not happy that he didn’t receive a harsher sentence, so…in retaliation [she screamed] “He raped me! He’s a sex offender!” …Almost immediately, a mob lead by Mayes’ father proceeded to beat Robinson and…pepper spray [him]…hours later, he died…Mayes and her father…have been sentenced to…six years…

David…Levy’s vision in Love and Sex With Robots is…profoundly creepy, and has troublesome implications now that sex robots are quickly becoming a reality. He…[presents] sex robots as…the inevitable and desirable future…and it won’t just be the lonely men who are the usual clientele of prostitutes…he…even retrieves the long-discredited defense of pornography as a marital aid…Levy’s understanding of sex is almost entirely degraded…it’s the view of the chronic masturbator and porn addict…healthy sexual desire does not take as its object a mere sensation or state, but a person …the recognition of pornography addiction as a serious problem…is…evidence that something goes wrong when sexual desire is directed away from people…Just as with prostitution, the more sophisticated their illusions become, the more intense will be the guilt that comes after their mechanical gimmickry has done the job…

The Federal Trade Commission has fined UK-based JDI Dating for using fake, computer-generated profiles to trick users into upgrading to paid memberships. JDI…must pay a $616,165 fine and reform its practices. The case is the first for the FTC against an online dating site. JDI allowed users to set up profiles on its sites for free, and then sent them fake messages purportedly from people living nearby who wanted to meet…The users were unable to respond without setting up paid memberships…

Economist Charles Hill explains why “end demand” strategies are not only morally bankrupt, but have the opposite effect their proponents claim: “Economic analysis suggests that this policy may not have the desired effect. In fact, I contend that it might actually have the perverse effect of increasing the supply of sex services…” I’m not even going to try to synopsize this, but it’s definitely worth your time even if your eyes glaze over once the statistical analysis starts.

…[before] Arbor Day this year, Pornhub launched its “Give America Wood” campaign…to plant a tree for every 100 videos watched in the “Big Dick” category…[the NGO which got the check] “politely requested” not to be identified. Pornhub ran into the same reluctance when they ran their “Save the Boobs” campaign…in 2012…Komen…publicly rejected the money…Pornhub split the cash between three smaller unidentified organizations…this month, James Deen…was rejected by…a slew of major breast cancer organizations. Instead, he’ll donate 50 percent of all profits from his website during…October to smaller organizations like The Rose and Living Beyond Breast Cancer…

…the state Supreme Court decided that dancers at one Las Vegas club are employees, not independent contractors, and are entitled to be paid minimum wage. The unanimous ruling…was issued in a class-action lawsuit filed…on behalf of dancers at Sapphire Gentlemen’s Club…Clark County District Court…hearings [will] determine how much more than 6,600 current and former dancers at the club are owed…the amount could reach $40 million, including back wages, plus the return of “house fees” the dancers paid the club to be allowed to work…

…As the members of the alliance worked together to combat pornography, some Christian groups began to incorporate [feminist] rhetoric …Soon…members of religiously conservative groups were rehearsing arguments about the degradation of women, violence against women, and even women’s inequality…the feminist-evangelical anti-pornography alliance was instrumental in setting the stage for the contemporary…anti-trafficking movement…the rhetoric of “sexual slavery”…appears much earlier (and with different meaning) in radical feminist critiques…[and] concerns about the media’s sexualization of ever-younger girls…remain a staple of the contemporary anti-trafficking movement…

Since three key prostitution laws were overturned nearly a year ago, Ottawa police have struggled with how to [harass sex workers and clients]…Insp. Mike Laviolette…[pretends] he wants to…keep an eye out for human trafficking…[and lied that] the average age of sex slaves…was 18 years old…

The rest includes a leering, lip-smacking description of a sleazy female cop used to trick men so they can be abducted and forced into “john school” and subjected to propaganda about “the dark and dangerous aspects of prostitution“.

A Liberal senator will propose more amendments to the Conservative government’s controversial anti-prostitution bill as the clock ticks down on a court-imposed deadline…George Baker said…he intends to introduce 15 amendments…seeking to remove provisions which would criminalize those who sell sex…

Feminist T-shirts proudly worn by [British celebrities and politicians] are made in “sweatshop” conditions by migrant women paid just 62p [99¢] an hour…on…Mauritius…[the workers] sleep 16 to a room – and earn much less than the average wage on the island. The £45 [$72] T-shirts carry the defiant slogan “This is what a feminist looks like”. But one of the thousands of machinists declared: “We do not see ourselves as feminists. We see ourselves as trapped”…

Dunwoody [Georgia] police said… they have busted a prostitution ring masquerading as high-end modeling outfits where clients paid $300 or more an hour. Police have charged the owners and operators of Atlanta Fantasies and Ashley’s of Atlanta with human trafficking for sexual servitude, keeping a place of prostitution and racketeering. Charged so far are Robert Tyler…and Donna Allen…Some 26 women — all adults — were identified as “victims” of the organization…

…the…0.2 percent rate touted in a recent op-ed…misses the mark because it uses the wrong numbers and some poor assumptions…The…National Crime Victimization Survey…indicates about a 10% lifetime risk or about 3% college-age risk…the one-in-five stat is inconsistent with another number claimed by advocates of new policies: a reporting rate of 12%. If you assume a reporting rate near that and use the actual number of reporting assaults on major campuses, you get a rate between 3% and 5%…Further research is consistent with this rate…Mark Perry finds 3-5%. Texas schools show 5-6%. NCVS and RAINN stats indicate 2-5%. Basically, any time we use actual numbers based on objectives surveys, we find the number of women who are in danger of sexual violence during their time on campus is 1-in-20, not 1-in-5…if one in five women on college campuses are being sexually assaulted…we should shut down every college in the country since they are the most dangerous places for women in the entire United States…

Tim Osrin claimed that he had never assaulted anyone before but had mistaken [Cynthia] Joni for a “prostitute” and “snapped”. Now, a…sex-worker has come forward to claim that earlier this year, Osrin told her to “fuck off out of my street”, before hitting her so hard that he knocked a tooth out of her mouth. The woman laid a charge of assault against Osrin…At least five sex-workers who operate in the area attested to [her] injuries and alleged they had also been harassed…

“the amount could reach $40 million, including back wages, plus the return of “house fees” the dancers paid the club to be allowed to work…”

Peoples – doesn’t matter if it’s Amway or lapdancing: if you have to pay someone money for the privilege of working for them, then you are being scammed. Doesn’t matter if it’s a couple of hundred for your “startup kit”, or this “house fee” – any business that takes this kind of fee relies on churning its workers, which means continuously telling lies to starry-eyed hopefuls.

One of the nastier recent innovations is an “unpaid internship”; it’s not work experience, it’s real work for no pay. And sometimes the only way to get a job in a particular company.

And paying to be allowed to work isn’t new. A century and more ago, you could do a “Premium Apprenticeship” with some English companies. You did get excellent training and experience during the three years you were with the company, often ones prestigious in their field. FH Royce had his fee, at the Great Northern Railway engineering works, paid for by a generous aunt.

Unpaid internship is not just about free labour – it’s about keeping a certain class of people (people that can’t afford to work without pay for a year) out of an industry or a company. The jobs go to people who have experience as an intern – to people who can live off daddy and mummy for a year.

Charles Hill’s blog on the economic aspects of “end demand” is one of the best analytical pieces I’ve read. It deserves a wide audience amongst politicians. Alas, I’m not sure how many would have the ability to understand it; and those few who did would simply ignore it.

I, too, loved the Charles Hill piece. What it glosses over, however, is the implicit assumption by end demand supporters that they can drop the D2 curve to below the P0 threshold. If that’s the case, theoretically, you drop everyone except the high end market segment out of the business, because the price paid by buyers is not worth the opportunity cost going in.

What Hill is saying, in effect, is that if you only reduce the demand curve and it’s not enough to hit the P0 threshold you make things worse on sex workers: unabashedly true. But prohibitionists will simply draw the D2 curve lower than Hill did, to the point where being on welfare or waitressing is more lucrative than whoring, because in their fantasy world this is possible with sufficient John-shaming.

So I guess what I’m saying is that the prohibitionists wouldn’t disagree with this model, in theory, they are under the naive belief that they can magically make things so bad for customers that demand will wither away like the state in the imaginary Marxist endgame.

It is this naivete that is truly unforgivable, given that anyone with a significant grasp of history can see that it hasn’t worked that way with either alcohol, drugs, or damn near any other “moral crime” the state has declared verboten.

So Hill is right, he just assumes that end demanders are rational actors. Which is not a fatal flaw in his model, but may be one for an attempt to convince people that his model is relevant.

Regarding the “Class Warfare” Spaceship Two link: I work at the Navy’s Test Pilot School, and anyone who thinks the pilots of Spaceship Two were in any way unaware of the risks of the test, or the consequences of failure, or were forced in any way to participate is willfully ignorant. Those folks with “Test Pilot” in their title have made a profession out of pushing the edge of what what is possible, and have made a science out of evaluating, mitigating and accepting the risks of their profession.

Regardless of what others think, the people involved in this program and others like it feel strongly that it is important that humanity learn to reach beyond this world economically, and are willing to risk their lives to make it happen. I’d be amazed if Mr. Rogers at Wired had ever believed in something, anything, strongly enough to put his life on the line proving it was possible.

I have a problem with your quotation for today’s blog. I have taken the liberty of rewording it a bit:

What is right with a contract to sell sexual services between consenting adults who enter voluntarily into the transaction, both of who benefit by the exchange?…everything is right about it. Both benefit here, so why should this be regarded as a crime?

I have followed development of SpaceShipTwo for years. Your comment is dead on accurate.

“Virgin Galactic is building the world’s most expensive roller coaster”

No. Virgin Galactic is developing a spaceplane. The roller coaster application is merely providing the “bootstrap” financing. Branson’s stated goal is intercontinental suborbital transport. Think of it as the successor to the Concorde. London to Hong Kong in one hour.

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